McKesson to acquire Rexall drugstore chain

McKesson to acquire Rexall drugstore chain

Major U.S. health-care services company McKesson Corp. (MCK-N) has a $3-billion deal to buy the Rexall drugstore chain and related companies. The move comes amid pressure on Rexall, which is owned by the Katz Group of Edmonton, to find a partner after Loblaw Cos. Ltd. (L-T) acquired Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. two years ago.

Globe and Mail – Financial Post – Toronto Star – Ottawa Business Journal

Rovts ramp up Toronto investment

With Manhattan CRE reaching record highs, fertilizer billionaire Alexander Rovt and sons are looking to expand their real estate empire. The Rovts are 50 per cent owners of the Aria Hotel Budapest, which opened last year, and Hotel X in Toronto, which will launch at the end of this year. It is slated to be Canada’s largest hotel.

The Real Deal – Wall Street Journal

East Gardiner Expressway plan moves ahead

Toronto’s public works committee is recommending council support a plan to push the eastern section of the Gardiner Expressway farther north, despite a $1.052-billion price tag that’s double the teardown option council rejected.  Last June, council voted 24-21 in favour of Mayor John Tory’s “hybrid” option to remove only the elevated portion east of the Don River.

Toronto Star – Toronto Sun – Toronto Star

Artis REIT aims to reduce Alberta portfolio

Artis‘ Alberta properties account for about 35 per cent of the 26.2 million square feet of CRE in the Winnipeg-based REIT’s (AX.UN-T) portfolio. President/CEO Armin Martens said Tuesday it appears the capital markets would prefer to see that ratio reduced to 25 to 30 per cent. “So we are looking to be able to do that in a way that is smart.”

Winnipeg Free Press – Bloomberg

Allied well-positioned in Alberta REIT market: Emory

VIDEO: Michael Emory, president and CEO of Allied Properties REIT (AP.UN-T), joins Bloomberg TV Canada’s Pamela Ritchie to discuss the challenges facing Alberta’s office REIT market and how Allied is positioned.

Bloomberg

Pure Multi closes on Texas properties

Pure Multi-Family REIT LP  (RUF.U-X) announced the successful closing of two previously announced multi-family apartment communities, located in San Antonio, Texas, for a combined purchase price of US$117,500,000. One property consists of 344 luxury residential units and the other consists of 416 brand-new luxury residential units.

Canada Newswire

REIT creation not imminent: Leon’s CEO

“While it is our intention to take a closer look at under-utilized real estate in our portfolio over the coming three to five years . . . a REIT vehicle is only one potential avenue we may choose to explore as we evaluate our options,” Leon’s (LNF-T) president/CEO Edward Leon said in a media release. “The creation of a REIT is not imminent . . .”

Stockhouse

Vancouver developers in legal battle

The owner of a lucrative piece of Vancouver real estate has sued a developer for what he calls false claims the two sides had agreed to develop the property together. Businessman Hong Leong Oei and his company, Canadian Metropolitan Properties Corporation, filed suit against Concord Pacific Acquisitions Inc.

Globe and Mail – Vancouver Sun

Condo owners selling entire buildings to developers

When Catherine Davis bought her condo in Coquitlam, B.C., five years ago, she thought she would stay there pretty much the rest of her life. But Davis, 60, and her 82-year-old mother are among condo dwellers who’ve decided to band together and sell the whole thing to a developer, in this case to Concert Properties for $5 million.

Globe and Mail

Foreign speculation hits Metro Vancouver CRE

The purchase of an old retail building on a 20,000-square-foot lot in Vancouver’s Marpole area for nearly $1,000 per square foot – $44 million an acre – signals speculation, much of it involving offshore buyers, has taken a firm hold in the CRE sector. Many properties are being bought based on future development potential, according to a Colliers International report.

Business In Vancouver

Vancouver’s Granville Street ripe for a reboot

Higher-than-usual vacancies along Granville Street’s entertainment district in downtown Vancouver and the surging number of tech workers moving into the area is renewing calls for a reboot of the southern blocks of the street that have long hosted the city’s edgiest nightlife. Some of the larger nightclubs have been finding it challenging to attract enough regular business on a nightly basis.

Vancouver Sun

Winner of huge Toronto land deal expected in March

The successful bidder for 11 acres of prized waterfront real estate, near the foot of Yonge Street in downtown Toronto is expected to be announced later this month. The site is the former location of the head office of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. An investing vehicle run by the Westons is expected to be among the bidders.

Canadian Lawyer – Metro News

Ontario’s big gaming gamble

Revitalizing Ontario’s aging gambling operations is supposed to create jobs, modernize facilities, and pump billions of dollars into the provincial economy, based on a 2012 plan that creates a new ownership model and invites the private sector to share the risk. Yet the transformation is only just getting off the ground.

Canadian Lawyer

CRE execs choose U.S. over global invesments

These days, commercial real estate executives are more confident in the U.S. economy than in global investment prospects, says the 2016 Real Confidence survey. The survey asked C-suite level executives about economic trends, demographics, consumer preferences, and the supply and demand levels of commercial real estate assets.

Advisor.ca – Atlanta Journal-Constitution – Marketwired

The 50 most important figures of CRE finance

Every year has a story. Whether it was the story of the market’s implosion (2008), or Hudson Yards‘ unstoppable momentum (ongoing, but we really felt it in 2014 /15), there’s some big deal or big project that sets a tone. In 2015, that tone was set by the $5.3 billion sale of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village.

Commercial Observer

Featured Column

Skyrocketing office vacancy, maturing loan bad combination

The effects of declining oil prices have been felt in a variety of unpleasant ways, particularly in Western Canada. One of the more pronounced repercussions is the office vacancy rates in Calgary and Saskatoon, the largest cities in their respective provinces.

Read more

Market Trends and Research

U.S. hotel slump lures buyout firms

Buyout firms expect bargains may emerge in hotel investments following the slump in U.S. lodging stocks, suggesting a potential pickup in deals. “Market volatility creates opportunities for longer-term, value-oriented investors like ourselves,” said Tyler Henritze, co-head of U.S. real estate acquisitions for Blackstone Group LP (BX-N), which raised a record $15.8 billion property fund last year. 

Bloomberg

Real estate not so safe after all

You know what you do with your portfolio when the stock market behaves badly? You move to those timeless stores of value: cash, gold and real estate. Despite such popularity, my guess is that few sophisticated portfolio managers actually attempt to sidestep the market’s vagaries by hiding in cash, gold or real estate – and for good reason.

Bloomberg

Can Airbnb and multi-family firms work together?

James B. Clarke is the president and registered lobbyist for the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, an organization representing 7,000 apartment owners and managers. Clarke also happens to be personal friends with the L.A.-based lobbyist for Airbnb, the online lodging-rental site that last year claimed 17 million short-term residents across the globe.

Multifamily Executive

REOC Financial Reports

	REITs & REOCs – Fourth-quarter 2015 report
	RENX has prepared a table with a convenient list of the companies and a summary of links to their reports that will be updated quarterly. Fourth-quarter results are now arriving. Canadian REITs & REOCs – Fourth-quarter 2015 report

 

REIT Financial Reports

Latest fourth-quarter report:

* Allied Properties REIT, (AP.UN-T), Marketwired 

* Artis REIT, (AX.UN-T), Canada Newswire 

Real Estate Investment Trusts

KBS raises funds in first phase of Israeli bond offering

KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT is on the verge of becoming the first U.S. real estate investment trust to successfully issue bonds in Israel. The company closed a roughly $216 million debt tender to Israeli investment funds and financial institutions Tuesday, sources said. The public, non-traded REIT is managed by Newport Beach, Calif.-based real estate investment firm KBS Capital Advisors.

The Real Deal

Choice Properties to issue unsecured debentures

Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (CHP.UN-T) announced it has agreed to issue $350 million aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured debentures of the Trust in two series.

Canada Newswire

Is Dream Office still a safe investment?

For the past few months I have been trying to determine if Dream Office REIT (D.UN-T) is a safe investment. At times it paid a 14.7 per cent yield, which many predicted was not sustainable based on where its real estate assets are located. Those predictions were right. Management announced it would be cutting its dividend by approximately 33%.

Motley Fool

Legal Corner

Bowman open to inquiry into real-estate scandals

Mayor Brian Bowman says he’s open to the idea of an inquiry into Winnipeg’s construction and real-estate scandals in the wake of new allegations involving the city’s police headquarters. An RCMP search warrant unsealed earlier this week elaborated upon allegations of fraud and forgery involving the of the city’s $214-million police headquarters project.

Winnipeg Free Press – Winnipeg Free Press – Winnipeg Free Press – Winnipeg Free Press

Retail

Sports Authority files for bankruptcy protection

Sports Authority filed for bankruptcy Wednesday after failing to exploit the fitness boom that’s been a rare bright spot in retail. To reorganize, it says it will try to benefit from tax law. The company has fallen far since a $1.3-billion buyout in 2006 piled it with debt. The company said it will close as many as 140 of its 463 locations.

Bloomberg – The Street – Winnipeg Free Press

Loblaw set to cash in on price gap

A spike in food prices has widened the price divide between Canada’s grocery stores and their discount divisions. Among public grocers, “this period of pricing confusion favours industry leader Loblaw” (L-T) , given its scale relative to other players and its large network of discount stores, No Frills, analyst Keith Howlett of Dejardins Securities wrote.

Financial Post

New Development

Community at odds over Vancouver development project

Vancouver’s most famously left-leaning neighbourhood is at odds over a project that would allow a long-time local mental-health services agency to build a bigger new centre and create housing. But the trade-off means giving developer Boffo Properties the chance to build a 12-storey condo tower. The No Tower coalition says the development will open the door to more towers.

Globe and Mail – BCBusiness

Sports Venues

Indoor sports facilities flourish in Saskatoon

The crack of a wooden bat connecting with a baseball echoes through the dimly lit warehouse. “It’s a baseball saying: If you build it, they’ll come,” said Jordan Draeger, a former NCAA college baseball player and current instructor at Going Yard Baseball Warehouse, which opened in April 2013 and currently boasts about 120 members. 

Saskatoon StarPhoenix – Edmonton Journal

Renovation and Restoration

Lord Elgin Hotel to get facelift

A weekend gala marked the 75th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone at the Lord Elgin Hotel, but the Ottawa landmark is planning much more to mark its anniversary. Director of sales and marketing Ann Meelker said the renovations will include extensive updates to all the rooms and corridors at a cost in the $10-million range.

Ottawa Business Journal – Ottawa Citizen

Infrastructure

Saskatoon North America’s ‘most improved’ airport

Saskatoon International Airport is the “most improved airport” in North America, according to the latest annual rankings by Airports Council International. Other airports honoured were in Nairobi, Kenya (most improved in Africa); Denpasar, Bali (Asia-Pacific); Istanbul (Europe); Kingston, Jamaica (Latin America-Caribbean); and Dammam, Saudi Arabia (Middle East).

CTV News – Global News – Ottawa Business Journal – Business Standard

Human Resources

First Capital Realty appoints executives

First Capital Realty Inc. (FCR-T), one of Canada’s largest owners, developers and managers of grocery-anchored urban properties, announced Jordan Robins will assume the role of chief operating officer during the second quarter of 2016. Carmine Francella had earlier joined the company as senior vice-president, leasing and Gareth Burton was named senior vice-president, construction. 

Canada Newswire

Home Capital CEO Soloway stepping down

Home Capital Group Inc. (HCG-T) chief executive Gerald Soloway is stepping down after almost 30 years at the helm of the mortgage lender. He will hand the reins to company president Martin K. Reid at the company’s annual meeting on May 11. Soloway will remain a director of Home Capital and subsidiaries Home Trust and CFF Bank.

Financial Post

Roots Canada appoints new CEO, CFO

Roots Canada has named a new person to the top job at the clothing company. The Toronto-based apparel brand says Jim Gabel has been appointed to the position of president and chief executive. Gabel was most recently president at The Performance Group of Wolverine World Wide. Roots says Jim Rudyk will be the company’s new chief financial officer. Rudyk comes from Shred-It, an international paper-shredding company.

CTV News – Canada Newswire

Other

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